Monday, January 24, 2011

Amy Napier-Viteri (Twitter: @anapierviteri) is a reporter at WKRN News2, Nashville's ABC affiliate. She has covered a wide range of stories, including dog fighting (for which she was nominated for an Emmy and recognized by the Humane Society of the United States), the death of former Tennessee Titans quarterback Steve McNair, the historic 2010 flood, various destructive tornadoes, and even a small but loud protest against Spanish-language books in the main library in Lewisburg (see below Napier-Viteri's thoughts about these last two stories).

Napier-Viteri came to Music City four years ago from Telemundo in Washington, D.C., where she worked as a Spanish-language reporter. Prior to that, Amy worked as a writer and segment producer at WJLA-TV, the ABC affiliate in D.C. Napier-Viteri has also worked outside the U.S. - in London, England for a financial publishing company, and in Madrid, Spain, for an English-language magazine aimed at Spanish readers.

Napier-Viteri received her M.A. in broadcast journalism from the University of Miami, in Coral Gables. She earned her undergraduate degree at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. During college, she studied in San Jose, Costa Rica; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Madrid (before the magazine gig).

Napier-Viteri grew up in a D.C. suburb in Northern Virginia, Fairfax County.

Napier-Viteri tells HispanicNashville.com that her Latina roots are in Ecuador:

My mother is from Guayaquil, Ecuador, and she moved to the United States (New Jersey) with her family when she was in middle school. (My mother says they went to the American consulate and applied to get visas for residency in the U.S., and a short time later, they were approved. It seems the process was a lot simpler than it is now.)

She is one of 7 kids so I grew up around LOTS of cousins. Some of my family is still in Guayaquil and Quito, so we try to get back whenever I can get time off (which is tough in the news business!)

Dad was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. He taught himself to speak Spanish when he met my mother. Very romantic.

Looking back on the tornadoes, Napier-Viteri tells HispanicNashville.com:

Covering the mess the tornadoes left behind really puts things in perspective not only as a journalist, but as a person. You see people who have lost everything, every single possession, yet they are so happy and feel blessed to still be here.

Napier-Viteri also describes for HispanicNashville.com the overwhelming response to her coverage of the Lewisburg library story:

One of the most interesting stories came when I first moved here. A man in Marshall County was demanding the public library in Lewisburg remove any books in the Spanish language. The library director explained all foreign language books were donated, so the man demanded a policy that all donated books should be in English. The library declined to change its policy, and after the story aired, the library received more calls and donations of foreign language books than they have ever had before. It is nice to see people respond to a story and do what they think is the right thing. (HispanicNashville.com followed Napier-Viteri's coverage of the library story here.)

This profile of Amy Napier-Viteri is the fourth in a series of media profiles here on HispanicNashville.com. Recently featured media profiles include Chris Echegaray of the Tennessean,Charles Maldonado of the City Paper and Scene, and Marielena Ramos of NewsChannel 5 Plus. On deck are Christine Maddela of WKRN/News2, Ray Ponce de Leon of The Contributor, and Eric Alvarez of Fox17.